Knockers Vs Tenterden

Winning Draw :: Played on Sunday 1st June 2025

Knockers
226-4

Tenterden
216-8

Match Report

Knockers CC vs Tenterden CC | 01.06.2025
_2pm start. Timed Game with 20 overs from 18:30.
_YouTube stream (A lofty 261 views at time of writing), key moments timestamped throughout
_Toss lost, Knockers bat first

Knockers 226-4 dec (37 overs)
Tenterden 216-8 (46 overs)
MATCH DRAWN

A pleasure of a Sunday down in Tenterden as Knockers and their 5 fans flocked from all corners, witnessing a game that had all results possible in the final over.

Dads and lads, debutants, dropped catches, slide-tackled boundaries, dippy LBWs, dropped catches and a head wound, we ticked many of the expected boxes in a tense affair that went right down to the wire.

Put into bat, the Knockers dictatorship pairing of Marshes T & O strode out to the middle, hoping for a partnership that hadn’t seen the light of day for over a decade. T Marsh immediately questioned how WhatsApp colleagues (/ armchair warriors) in the Knockers reserves could call that strip a road as the TCC openers deployed floated guile and wrenching seamers that drew missed /miscued drives as well as some welcome boundary balls. Early highlights were Ollie launching a towering boundary over cow (4 given) and top communication from the brothers.

Upon hearing that his bearded foe has a statue at the University of Exeter, an awestruck Ted snicked behind to bring in a Matty Landers who waffed his way to juicy boundaries and the game’s first maximum alongside some award-worthy and tempered forward defences (that look exceptional on playback). Debutant Gabe joined Matt after Ollie missed a gate-beater and inspired some confidence in the ranks with his Rory Burns-esque setup, what would his high backlift bring to the side?

11 dot balls and a plummeting run rate later, Gabe seized upon a fuller delivery to loft his first runs over mid on for 4. A stellar way to open the club account. The lads combined nicely against probing opposition lines and cashed in on boundaries to keep the rate ticking as well as (precisely) spooning some high balls into the outfield to keep the fielders guessing.

Matt middled one straight to backward point to end a promising innings that was ready to move through some gears. Fans will have to wait for the next outing. A Basham then had 30 mins of Gabe’s company before el Dëbútant tried to cart, heave and launch a 20mph moon ball into the Channel, losing his stumps in the process.

With the game tightly poised and thoughts turning to suitable declaration targets, Ali and Jai played a blinder to turn the momentum in our favour with the club's second-highest fifth wicket partnership. An hour-long partnership took us from 115 to 226 with big boundaries, no 3s, as few 2s as possible and the occasional 1, a chagrined O Marsh trying to influence the details from umpire. Both batters kept 100+ strike rates and put us in a very commanding position going into tea, Ali reaching his 50 with a booming off-balance sweep through square leg that nearly scalped a fan on the boundary and Jai notching his with the final ball of our innings, callously high fiving the bowler in the follow through.

Tea was scranned.

A rare Knockers warm up took place with another debutant, Richard (Papa) Basham, donning the keeping gloves to the fiery opening bowlers loosening their shoulders.

A zeitgeist moment graced the day as Ollie announced the Prof-Doc opening salvo to begin our defence. Prof naturally came down the hill and dared to channel Milton’s Satan as he leaked runs but defied odds and batting wits with his deliveries; better to [tempt boundaries] than [bowl a strict line and length]. Indeed.

Doc Shah, fresh from the heady glory of Kemsing renaming their pavilion after him, fizzed in a similar dosage of flighted troublemaking from his typical umpire-adjacent launchpad and induced a caught behind from his 4th ball, R Basham handling the glovework nicely. The 10 on-pitch fans were of course delighted, and we hoped to work the early gain into a bit of momentum.

Tenterden’s 2nd-wicket partnership had other ideas and worked diligently to punish our off balls towards a 50-run stint that put things firmly back in the balance. Time was of minimal concern but discipline on both sides played a big part, partnerships a premium for them, wickets for us. Doc ended his spell with 1 wicket but could’ve had a couple more but for dropped chances. Added drama occurred, a combination of anger at the dropped catches and hesitance in seeing another Papa out there, Vinit ripped one through the pitch and up to R Basham’s forehead, clocking him out for the rest of the game. (please feel free to come back, Richard…)

Our first change brought Seb and Neil in to tease out some more wickets and Seb duly obliged, removing their steady opener C&B. Neil bagged 2 LBWs and they were, well, exciting. Time stood still as his ethereal, flighted arrows dipped at the perfect late moments to deceive the batters into throwing a shot and missing, both trapped dead on; exhibit A & exhibit B (game changer in removing their 50-maker). Seb also bagged the dangerous no.4 who was beginning to motor.

A Basham bowled 4 overs, 0-30. Gabe bowled 2, 0-10.

With 13 overs left and 47 to win, Ollie changed things up for a him and Ted to chance themselves at the final 5 wickets. Ollie opened with 2 maidens and ended on 0-11 off 7, his hard line and lengths took the game away from TCC in the dying stages. The committee has, however, taken note of some rather odd antics in the final over that resulted in 2 dead balls. Ted came down the hill, dropped a C&B, threw down some wides and 4-balls before finding some rhythm that took 3 wickets to keep the bookies open for the final result. (ball tracking may have questioned the LBW within)

We were tensely poised for the final over from Ollie, all results possible but we sensed our invitations for TCC to hit our skipper for 2 maximums weren’t leading anywhere. Our victory march came up just short as the oppo ended on 216-8, both sides perhaps wondering what might’ve been. What an incredible game. The smiles on everyone’s faces made it that much better.

Teletext notes:

- LSA jibed the Marshes about their speeds, noted for the next intra-club fixture
- L Stephens shamed the oppo keeper about unsavoury topics. Stones, glasshouses etc.
- Akhil knows how to stream cricket (although we’d of course prefer him playing)
- Jayatheerth Seetharaman is in a different continent and can’t let go of Knockers Sundays, with a canny ability to prompt KCC wickets when tuning in. Yes please.

 

Batting

Batsman	How Out	4s	6s	Runs
Ted Marsh	caught	4	0	21
Ollie Marsh	bowled	3	0	16
Matt Landers	caught	3	1	26
Gabe Musker	bowled	4	0	21
Alistair Basham	not out	10	1	66
Jai Shah	not out	7	2	55
Seb Horner	dnb	0	0	0
Neil Dave	dnb	0	0	0
John Mitchell	dnb	0	0	0
Vinit Shah	dnb	0	0	0
Richard Basham	dnb	0	0	0

 

Bowling

Bowler	Overs	Mdns	Runs	Wkts
John Mitchell	5.0	0	36	0
Vinit Shah	7.0	0	39	1
Seb Horner	8.0	0	32	2
Neil Dave	7.0	0	30	2
Alistair Basham	4.0	0	30	0
Gabe Musker	2.0	0	10	0
Ollie Marsh	7.0	2	11	0
Ted Marsh	6.0	0	24	3